Facebook hopes "to bring back this useful tool" after further negotiation.

Facebook has agreed to disable its facial recognition service for European users, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner announced today. Facebook has come under fire in the EU for using facial recognition software to identify the people in users' photos and suggest friends to tag in those photos. Germany recently called the practice illegal and demanded that Facebook disable the facial recognition service and destroy its database of files based on facial recognition technology.

Facebook said at the time that it didn't have to, because the data collection is legal in Ireland, where the company has its European headquarters. But Irish authorities were conducting an inquiry of their own, and forced Facebook to partially adopt what Germany demanded.

Regarding the "tag suggest/facial recognition feature," Facebook has agreed "to go beyond our initial recommendations, in light of developments since then, in order to achieve best practice," Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes said in an announcement. "This feature has already been turned off for new users in the EU and templates for existing users will be deleted by 15 October, pending agreement with my Office on the most appropriate means of collecting user consent."

Facebook isn't giving up on facial recognition in the EU forever. In a statement sent to TechCrunch, it said, "It’s worth us reiterating that once we have agreed [on] an approach on the best way to notify and educate users with the DPC, we hope to bring back this useful tool."

In addition to the facial recognition issue, the commission said Facebook has agreed to provide better transparency to users on how data is collected, increased user control over privacy settings, and the "implementation of clear retention periods for the deletion of personal data or an enhanced ability for the user to delete items."

Not all of its recommendations have been implemented yet, the commission noted. You can read its full report here. While it does not say whether all facial recognition data will be deleted, a code review has determined that "when a user disables the tag suggestions feature that the facial recognition data for that user is deleted."